OpenCPN General

[Alueva]

Hi,
I had never heard of OpenCPN until a couple of days ago. I’m keen to installing on my MacBook Pro. Would it be sufficient to connect my iPhone to my laptop to obtain a GPS position? Or donn no I need to get a stand-alone GPS unit?

Thanks, folks

Jan

[kevinvh]

You cannot use the iPhone as a GPS signal.

You will need to buy a USB connected GPS receiver, or bluetooth GPS receiver. Suitable GPS devices are:
USB - Columbus V-800 MarkIII Customizable GPS GNSS USB Receiver
Bluetooth - Garmin GLO 2 Bluetooth GPS or Dual SkyPro XGPS160

Do a Google search for the details.

[Alueva]

Thanks,

I thought that would be the case 👍🏽⛵️

[zachduckworth]

Hi everyone,

I haven't looked at all the pages before this one (I did look at some), but I have a basic idea (I think) of what's required for a Raspberry Pi based Open Plotter set up with AIS and radar.

That said...

I want to put a screen on the cockpit bulkhead of my Islander 30 so that I can see the display while driving with a tiller. Does anyone have any links or advice on display screens that I could put there, plus ruggedizing/protective coverings? And are there any good websites out there that explain how to set it all up? Thanks!

[rgleason]

Originally Posted by zachduckworth

Hi everyone,

I haven't looked at all the pages before this one (I did look at some), but I have a basic idea (I think) of what's required for a Raspberry Pi based Open Plotter set up with AIS and radar.

That said...

I want to put a screen on the cockpit bulkhead of my Islander 30 so that I can see the display while driving with a tiller. Does anyone have any links or advice on display screens that I could put there, plus ruggedizing/protective coverings? And are there any good websites out there that explain how to set it all up? Thanks!

Read this
https://opencpn.org/wiki/dokuwiki/do...rdware:screens

[burgoynebc]

Re cockpit display:
I have a tablet PC in my cockpit hard dodger on a sailboat. I am running an old win XP tablet (thats all you need) with an older ver of opencpn (later wont run on XP) It is the only display that I have found that is sunlight visable and a good angle of visability - for clarification, take a normal laptop and rotate the screen etc - gets pretty clear that it will be no good in a cockpit from the helm. It was cheaper and better to use the tablet - I tried a whole bunch of displays, PC's, etc before finding the one I use. It has the guts in the screen and the keyboard detaches.

I am currently trying to get a rpi4b into my system, with openplotter/opencpn and pypilot running on it. This has been extremely difficult. The rpi is headless and uses VNC to enable openplotter to be run from the tablet. If I can get the autopilot running opencpn will become the primary chartplotter on the rpi and opencpn will run as backup directly on the tablet.

Do not use a rpi4 its a pain and wont run headless either ver2 or 3. I would go with a rpi3 as nobody seems to have had the issues I have had on the rpi4.

I found that the videos got me into this project but I found almost all were either incomplete or obsolete in details of setting up. I would stick with the text docs. You get into a rabbit hole with the videos. They fail to relate to the non techy.
I am currently focussing on BBN that runs everything openplotter does (uses it) but installs without almost all issues I had with openplotter.

[Hakan]

Originally Posted by burgoynebc

Re cockpit display:
I am running an old win XP tablet (thats all you need) with an older ver of opencpn (later wont run on XP)

Well; OCPN is still supporting XP (SP3). Also the latest official download v5.6.2. (Next O version may though leave XP)

[burgoynebc]

Re dispay:
I stick with win xp sp2 because sp3 brought in windows genuine advantage (wga). It allows microsoft to detect any changes made to the hardware. If you replace the HD as example it will be impossible to install win back on it - because XP is no longer supported-no email, no phone etc to authenticate the OS = PC is bricked. I wondetr if they wont do the same with win 7????
Richard

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by burgoynebc

Re dispay:
I stick with win xp sp2 because sp3 brought in windows genuine advantage (wga). It allows microsoft to detect any changes made to the hardware. If you replace the HD as example it will be impossible to install win back on it - because XP is no longer supported-no email, no phone etc to authenticate the OS = PC is bricked. I wondetr if they wont do the same with win 7????
Richard

Here is a quote from an article which mentions how the OS makers don't give any assistance. It references Jensen Harris, who was UX director at Microsoft for almost six years, who took swings at his former employer:

by Jeff Burt, the Register
https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/...ws_start_menu/

"one of the greatest con jobs in IT. We have been taught, and never question, the near-abolition of customer support by the OS makers. Unless you pay extra, you cannot pick up the phone or email Apple, Microsoft, and especially not Linux, to ask basic questions. You cannot say to Apple, "Which bit of the Finder actually finds things?" You cannot complain to Microsoft...

The OS companies have insulated themselves from user pain, the sort that soaks up customer service resources and actually costs them money. Go to the forums, thou sluggard, and try to work out which version the answers you find are actually about. They have created their own walled poison gardens where they can mess around according to the will of whatever internal faction is carrying the day, sentencing billions to useless frustration, cognitive load, lost work, and lost lives. It is frankly criminal."

[Davidjones666]

Hi there looking for info on opencpn weatherfax plugin. For a few years now ive been downloading weather images with weaherfaxplugin using a portable sony icf-7600gr and an audio cord to computer. I recently reinsatlled open cpn and now when i click retrieve then capture it says "failed to configure capture. It will then open the capture screen but will not show the fax image. Anyone help?

[bbalan]

Originally Posted by Alueva

Hi,
I had never heard of OpenCPN until a couple of days ago. I’m keen to installing on my MacBook Pro. Would it be sufficient to connect my iPhone to my laptop to obtain a GPS position? Or donn no I need to get a stand-alone GPS unit?

Thanks, folks

Jan

I believe you can share position information from an iphone with this app:
https://apps.apple.com/app/gps-2-ip/id408625926


I don't use it but it seems to be what you are looking for.
BB

[rgleason]

We must have more information about your configuration, OS, version numbers etc.

Originally Posted by Davidjones666

Hi there looking for info on opencpn weatherfax plugin. For a few years now ive been downloading weather images with weaherfaxplugin using a portable sony icf-7600gr and an audio cord to computer. I recently reinsatlled open cpn and now when i click retrieve then capture it says "failed to configure capture. It will then open the capture screen but will not show the fax image. Anyone help?

[ALROCHARARI]

Hello guys,

I'm speaking here to OpenCPN forum moderators.

I recently posted about a specific plugin (Watchdog) and identified a problem related to another plugin (O-Charts) but could not find exactly where to post my communications about this.

Could it be possible to "structure" the threats to take this into account.
Something like:

[Plugin] Watchdog [General]
[Plugin] Watchdog [Issues]
[Plugin] Watchdog [Suggestions/Improvements]
[Plugin] Watchdog [Tests]
[Plugin] O-Charts [General]
[Plugin] O-Charts [Issues]
[Plugin] O-Charts [[Suggestions/Improvements]
[Plugin] O-Charts [Tests]
[Plugin] WeatherFax [General]
...

Tried to use the good job and efforts of Rick but unsuccessfully.
Never too late to improve.

Thanks in advance for your reaction

[rgleason]

It is probably time to update the hyperlink list and post links in a new post in the same thread.

I see your suggestion, for brevity I don't think we need "Plugins", perhaps "pi" is all that is needed.


Regarding categories: General, Issues, Suggestions, Tests.
What is General used for?

Not sure about creating all new threads, as we lose the capability to search the old thread easily, but we could organize the links and post in conformance.

This is a fair amount of work, but it should be updated.

[zachduckworth]

Hi,

I’m ordering parts for a Raspberry Pi based AIS system on my sailboat.
I am wondering if the Daisy Hat board is compatible with an RP 4, and if the RP4 has any major compatibility issues with current versions of Open CPN? Or should I use an RP 3 of some make/model. Thanks!